


Undertale: The Goat-Parent Trap

by TempoWrites



Series: Goat Bro Redux! The Fluffening: Asriel Returns [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adorable, Alternate Universe - Asriel Dreemurr Lives, Canon Compliant, Canon Universe, Cute, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Undertale, Everybody Lives, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Feels, Fix-It, Friendship, Frisk is a Sweetheart, Furry, Gen, Goat Mom Is Best Mom, Happy Ending, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Hugs, Illustrated, POV Frisk, POV Second Person, Pacifist Frisk, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route - "I want to stay with you.", SAVED Asriel Dreemurr, Sweet, Undertale Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 06:39:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11435256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TempoWrites/pseuds/TempoWrites
Summary: With your help, Asriel's back to being a Goat Bro. Together, you scheme to ship Asgore and Toriel.





	Undertale: The Goat-Parent Trap

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SillynekoRobin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SillynekoRobin/gifts).



Undertale: The Goat-Parent Trap  
by Tempo

~ ~ ~

Peeking into the kitchen, you spotted Asriel sitting at the table, munching on rainbow cereal. No sign of Mom. Excellent: the Important Business Meeting could now begin.

You hurried to your room. After automatically checking for floor pie, you skidded to a stop and opened the closet door. On a glittery plastic hanger, you found your business suit. For a second, you considered wearing the matching top hat, then figured that wasn't right for a modern business meeting. It was more of an ambassador hat. Sticking your hand in your pocket, you found an ID badge. "Frisk Dreemurr, Special Envoy for Monsters" said the little white card with your name. You only had to wear it when you went to the United Nations, which wasn't very often now that you had an Assistant Special Envoy for Monsters, a lady older than most of your teachers. She just texted you when she needed to know something. On one hand, Asriel already knew who you were. On the other, even adults took you seriously if you had a name badge. You clipped it on your jacket pocket, then got changed.

Once you had your suit on, you lassoed yourself with the tie Asgore tied for you months ago. The dress shoes you left in the closet. You still felt weird about wearing shoes in the house, even if the monsters never wore them and said they didn't care. Socks it was, then. Grabbing your notebook, you strode back through the living room, past the droopy potted plants, and to the kitchen in a very Important Business sort of way and grabbed a rubber spatula from a drawer. Then you plunked a water bottle down and scattered some papers on the table, mostly old worksheets. Then you moved the flower vase, which was plastic for safety, off to one side.

Asriel kept chewing as you entered, watching as you started rearranging the kitchen into a conference room. "Howdy, Frisk." He raised his spoon. "Why'd you put your phone in the middle of the table?"

You only had a cell phone, not a big landline phone, but you figured it was close enough. "Because we're having a business meeting." Pushing in all the chairs except the one across from him, you climbed up on that one to kneel so you were tall enough to give a presentation.

"Is that something from TV?" Wiping some rainbow crumbs from his lip, he gave you an unsure look. "You know I haven't watched enough TV to catch up yet."

"It's okay." You straightened your tie. "This is just how grown-ups have important conversations."

"Are we having an important conversation?" Asriel looked down at his cornflower-blue pajamas. The shirt had a penguin wearing sunglasses, above the phrase "too cool" printed in neon colors. He'd picked the PJs out himself. 

You took out your notebook and propped it open to a chart you'd drawn during math class. Math class was a great time to draw graphs and charts, since it looked like you were taking notes. Looking them over, you nodded in approval and showed them to the small goat.

"Frisk, I don't know how to read graphs." He tilted his head, ears dangling. Then he squinted. "And I don't think you know how to draw them."

"This is how happy we are now." You poked a rubber spatula at the graph. "And this is how happy we'll be when the plan works."

Asriel raised his paw.

You pointed the spatula at him. "Yes, Mr. Dreemur?"

He pointed a clawed finger at the far side of the graph. "Why's our happiness bent in the last part of the graph?"

"That part was on the edge of the table. The notebook bent." You flipped the page and pointed your spatula at a new chart, which showed drawings of Toriel and Asgore on halves of a pie chart. "Right now, we're getting the Mom experience half the time and the Dad experience the other half." You dragged the spatula in a circle around the graph. "Our goal is to get both all the time."

"Okay." He stirred the colorful puffs around his bowl, bright emerald eyes flicking from the page to you. "So what do we do?"

"Stage one of the plan was for me to put on this suit and start the meeting. I thought we'd come up with a plan now." You scratched your chin with the end of the spatula handle, then poked it high into the air. "How about we get ourselves in danger so they'll have to work together to save us?"

"No. No way. Last time I tried something like that it broke them up in the first place." He scooped up some more cereal, munched on it, then raised his spoon. "Also, it killed me. That wasn't fun."

You rolled your eyes and tapped the spatula on your palm. "Look, we all know death isn't fun. Nobody is saying it is. But if you're not willing to die a few times to make this plan work, I'm beginning to question your commitment."

His arms shot out to either side. "You came to me! I was just eating Fruit Blasters." After stirring them around in the milk, he crunched another rainbow mouthful. "I feel like us dying wouldn't get Mom and Dad back together."

"You may have a point, Mr. Dreemurr." You stroked your chin. "That's some good paradigm shifting."

"We're just ordinary kids now." With a resigned sigh, the goat monster used magic to drag the milk closer so he could pour it on what must have been at least his third bowl of cereal. "We can't solve all our problems by just dying a whole bunch at them anymore."

"We don't need SAVES to get Mom and Dad back together." You snapped your fingers, then pointed at him. "If we died at all, it would be by accident."

"Ugh." The goat rolled his eyes so far that his head tipped back, ears falling off his shoulders. "Can we keep dying out of the plan?" He patted a fluffy paw on the table between you, as if trying to flatten the idea. "And what is the plan?"

"I told you. Get Mom and Dad back together." Shaking your head a little, you lifted both hands.

His ears sank lower than usual as his eyebrows went up. "That's not a plan; it's just a thing we want. You're supposed to use a plan to get the thing."

"Okay, so how about this?" You straightened your tie some more, trying to look professional. "You'll dress up as Mom and let him see us leaving a note saying she likes him again. I'll carry you on my shoulders."

His muzzle dipped. "Why's it have to be me?"

You groaned. "You're the one with a goat head."

"I don't have a goat head." He gripped his nubby horns self-consciously. "Goats have a me head."

"Whatever." You tapped the rubber spatula on the table, like a judge. "You're the one who looks like Mom."

"Yeah, but someday I'll have a beard." He stroked his chin, which had zero trace of a beard.

"Right. So we shouldn't wait until then." You bopped the spatula on the chart. "I don't wanna figure out how to shave just the beard and not your normal fur."

"Can't we just use my boss form?"

"Asriel, the Absolute God of Hyperdeath is really cool, but I gotta say he causes more problems than he solves." You twirled the tip of the rubber spatula in the air, summoning an example. "Remember when that kid cut in line and you shot all those rainbows at him?"

"My rainbows don't really do much now." Setting down his spoon, he stretched out a palm and spilled a faint multi-hued glow across the table. "I had a whole bunch of souls in me when I was shooting those at you. You've seen my fire magic—it's like a lighter running out of fuel." He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Sorry about that, by the way."

You shrugged as the colored sparkled onto your suit. "As long as I get to eat birthday cake, I don't care who lights the candles."

Squirming, his narrow shoulders seemed to get even narrower. "No, I meant shooting attack rainbows at you."

"Oh right. That was technically an attack." You poked the spatula into the pool of rainbow on your sleeve. "It's kinda not the same in a kitchen. Last time I saw it, reality was melting."

Self-conscious, he straightened the fur poking out of his pajama shirt collar. "Can we go back to talking about your plan?"

"I thought you didn't like the plan?"

He picked back up his spoon and stirred his cereal until colors stained the milk. "I like it more than hearing about how my magic stinks."

A little pang of guilt twanged in your chest. It's not like you made him cry or anything, but you decided he needed some cheering up. "I've been meaning to ask: what is Hyperdeath anyway?"

Ears perking up, Asriel planted his hands on the table and got super serious. "It's like death…for Death."

Your lips made an impressed sort of pout expression. "That's so cool." It was actually pretty cool, even if you weren't sure how that would work exactly.

"I know, right?" He sat up, spreading both paws on the table. "I've been posting my drawings of him online. He's got a dark past." His sleeves had fallen over his hands, but he pushed them back up to do a little double-karate-chop at you. "As a flower."

"So what would the Absolute God of Hyperdeath do to get Mom and Dad back together?" You slid the spatula across the table to him. 

"Change time and space! But without magic? Hmm." Picking it up, he tapped the kitchen implement to his chin. He leaned back and crossed his arms, like an Egyptian pharaoh, but with a spoon and a spatula. "Probably ask Mom."

"We can't ask her." You shook your head. "Then she'd know."

"We'd have to be sneaky." His fuzzy white eyebrows scrunched together in thought. "Really sneaky. Mom's basically the smartest monster ever."

You snickered. "Asriel, has anyone ever called you a mama's boy?"

"No." His head tilted. "I mean I do...have a mom."

After a moment's consideration, you nodded. Toriel didn't put up with much teasing at her school, so it probably wouldn't come up ever.

"Why?" His small white paws rose. "What's it mean?"

"It's a surface-world expression." You shrugged. "It means you care a lot about what your mom thinks."

"Huh. That's cool, right?" He smoothed the stylish penguins of his PJs over his chest fluff. "I mean, shouldn't everyone should listen to their mom?"

"I-I guess?" Toriel was pretty cool: she made snacks and shot fire and was the queen of a country. You shook your head, trying not to smile. You'd been smiling a lot, living with goat monsters, and sometimes it hurt your cheeks. "Look, just don't bring it up at school."

"How come?" His voice squeaked just a little. It sort of sounded like a bleat sometimes. You tried not to tease him about it.

"Complicated surface-world reasons." You threw your hands in the air. "So, about this plan. We just ask Mom?"

Drinking the last of the milk from his bowl of cereal, he shrugged.

"Guess it's worth a shot..." You couldn't think of any better ideas. "But, like you said, we've gotta be sneaky about it."

~ ~ ~

 

Later that day, Asriel stared down a frozen chicken nugget.

Toriel sat across the table from him, watching with interest. They tried to practice a little magic every day. 

You, meanwhile, heated up a plate of chicken nuggets the traditional human way: in the microwave. As part of teaching your new family human customs, you'd told them about after-school snacks and gotten Toriel to buy some chicken nuggets. She'd been disappointed to learn no company made snail nuggets. You'd been quietly relieved. 

The smaller goat leaned in closer, giving the nugget a very serious look. He'd been trying for about five minutes and you hadn't seen any sign of magic, except for the occasional rainbow glow from his paws. 

"Mom..." Asriel gazed at the plate. A tiny sputter of steam rose from the nugget. It glistened in the afternoon sunshine before fading away. "I have a question."

Those cinnamon-hued eyes flicked to him. She smiled and made your heart warm. "Yes, my child?"

"How would I set up a date?" He looked up from the chicken nugget for a split second. "You know, a romantic one. What do I do?"

Her tail perked up through the slats of the chair-back. "Awww!" She pressed a paw to her fluffy cheek. "Does my little snoodleboop have a crush on someone?" A tiny burst of excitement bounced her straight up in the chair. "May I ask who it is?"

The chicken nugget erupted into flames. The young monster bleated in shock and sudden despair. "Mom!"

Smiling, she drizzled a glass of water over the ignited nugget. It extinguished with a hiss. She leaned a little forward on the table. "You can tell me, my child. I won't tease you."

He threw his arms in the smoky air, long sleeves flapping. "No one!"

A loud beeping started. You thought it was the fire alarm for a second, but then realized it was just the microwave. 

Covering her smile with a paw, she glanced to you. "Frisk, do you know who it is?"

You shrugged as you took the plate of nuggets out of the microwave. "Could be anyone, really. The monster kids all think he's their prince and the human kids all think he's adorable. So pretty much everyone at school wants to kiss him." 

"Ugh!" Asriel pulled on his ears. "No, they don't!"

"It is alright, my dear child. It is none of my business, after all." She patted his arm, then sat back in her chair. "To answer your question, people can go on many kinds of dates. Going out to a restaurant, having a picnic, attending a concert or a play: the important thing is both people are having fun and enjoying each other's company. That's the secret ingredient." She winked, in that super dorky way grown-ups think is cool.

Glum, Asriel picked up the scorched chicken nugget with his claws. He broke it open to find the meat still frozen inside. He slouched a little bit in his chair. His cheek ruffs sank with a frown.

You popped an actually-cooked chicken nugget into your mouth, juggled it on your tongue until it cooled down, and then patted him on the back. "I can't do magic at all, if that helps."

He took a deep breath, setting the burnt and frozen failure to the plate before him. His mouth slanted into a disappointed pout. "Yeah, but you're good at all this surface world stuff..."

Under the table, you bumped his foot with yours. "And you're good at being my bro."

He leaned against the back of the chair and shrugged, hiding behind his ears a little. "I mean, I don't really do anything special."

"You're nice to me." You picked up a chicken nugget and held it a centimeter from his lips. "That's pretty special."

With a soft smile, he opened his muzzle and carefully bit into the breaded chicken.

"Aww!" Toriel clasped her hands together at her chest. "My dear precious children, you are just so sweet." She stood. "Allow me bake you some cookies."

The younger goat monster tossed the rest of the chicken nugget into his mouth. "Mom, you don't have to—"

"Aw yeah: cookies!" You met his gaze. "What? You want her to only make pies forever?" 

Snatching a purple Delta Rune apron from a hook, she picked up a cookbook and flicked through the pages with her claws. "I have discovered a cookie variety called 'snickerdoodle' in human recipe tomes. Isn't that darling?" A bright bleat of delight announced she'd found the recipe. "Apparently, they are made with cinnamon. Or these 'peanut butter kiss' ones—they have a giant chocolate chip on top of them. Do human children like peanut butter and chocolate? What an exotic combination. We could add some dried snail chips instead, if you're scared."

"I think we can be brave enough." You winked at Asriel.

Asriel reached for the plate of nuggets.

With one fingertip set on his white velvet nose, you tipped him back into his chair. "No, you have to cook your own." Your head tilted up a little as you grabbed yourself another nugget. "Mom said."

His arms flapped up and down, long green sleeves fluttering down over his paws. "Then I'm gonna starve."

"Yeah, like we're really gonna starve in this house." You chomped the chicken nugget as you pointed a thumb back at the baking goat monster. Your eyes traced over the smaller goat monster. "I'm not sure how you don't weigh a million pounds, with how much candy you eat."

Asriel looked at you like you were a complete weirdo. "My body turns candy into magic. What's your body turn it into?"

"Umm." Looking down, you lifted up your shirt a couple inches and poked your faintly soft stomach, then looked back up at him. "Fat."

"Gross!" His fanged muzzle dropped open. "That's how fat works?"

You brandished a chicken nugget at him. "You seriously didn't know how fat works?"

His slim shoulders shrugged. "I thought some humans are just fat because they want to be."

"It's really more of a side effect." On your plate, your fingers played a quick game of shuffleboard with the nuggets. "Of liking food too much."

Mouth hanging open in disbelief again, he fixed you with a stare. "Humans are so weird!"

"You have to exercise to burn calories." You seriously couldn't believe you were explaining biology to a magic goat. "Walk, ride bikes—all that stuff."

Checking first if his mom was looking, he tossed the charred and frozen nugget into the trash. "Okay, so that's why humans do crazy things like talk to every single person in our society?" 

"No, that was just me hoping they'd say or do something that would help me." Mouth a thin line, you narrowed your gaze at your oblivious pal. "Because I was wandering alone in a mountain full of strangers and had no idea what I was doing."

Toriel chimed in from a faint cloud of flour. "You could've always stayed with me, my child." Her skilled paws packed butter into a measuring cup without getting any down the sides. She hummed a tune as soft and sweet as any pastry. 

Smirking, you tilted your head in the direction of the kitchen. "Then I would have weighed a million pounds."

With two blunt claws, Asriel slid your plate toward himself. "Then, as your best friend, I'd better save you from making all these into fat."

You groaned. "Fine. You can have half of them. But only because I like you."

"Hmm, we seem to be out of sugar." Goat Mom said this in a tone of genuine mystification, as if your lives weren't a constant parade of pies. "I'll fetch some from the root cellar."

You've given up trying to tell her to call it a basement. Instead, you watched her shuffle off, her tail swishing, then listened as her toe-claws clicked down the stairs. Then you turned to the small goat next to you. "Okay, so we have to find something the two of them like. What do they like?"

He raised a fuzzy white finger. "Us?"

You nodded. "How can we use that?"

Chicken nugget in one paw, Asriel used the other to stroke the beard he hoped to have someday. "Hmm. Maybe they'd come with us on a picnic."

"That'll get us, like, five relationship points. We need a zillion." Padding to the fridge, you poured a glass of milk. "The only way this could be worse is if they got actually divorced."

"Who would divorce them?" Using both paws, your best friend smoothed the fur of his ears, like a bunny does. You've never told him it's cute because then he might stop. "I think when you're king and queen, you just say so."

A big sigh left your body. "Yeah, getting all those kids un-killed didn't really do the trick like I hoped."

He glanced at you. A wince spread over half his round little muzzle. "I think that's because he killed all seven of them in the first place."

"Oh, they were fine! And it was only six! I technically never died in this timeline."

"Parents have a thing about timelines. I think they're just too old to get them." His gaze drifted into the living room. After a few seconds, he turned to you and raised a clawed finger. "Remember when we asked her what would happen if we broke her favorite lamp? And she got mad?"

"We had, though." You popped one of the nuggets into your mouth. 

"Yeah, but she didn't know that." Ears flopped down on his shoulders, he looked up at you cutely, nibbling a nugget while holding it with both paws. "It could've been another timeline."

"Except Mom's really smart, so she figured out what happened as soon as we said it." You squirmed, but remembered how she forgave you and felt less guilty. "That's why we need an extra-good plan to get them together. Like the one where you sit on my shoulders."

The small monster nodded, ears bobbing. He chewed some chicken way longer than he needed to. "Man, this is hard." Too short to reach the floor, he kicked his feet under the table. "I wish people talked about falling in love more."

"People talk about it all the time." You bumped his foot with yours. It was soft, like a bunny paw. "That's why there are so many mushy songs, movies, animes, books—"

Struck by an idea, he sat up. "Maybe it's like in romantic movies?"

A moment crawled by before you admitted: "I haven't really watched any romantic movies."

"Neither have I." He shrugged, long sleeves dropping away from his wrists. "But maybe it is!"

You nodded. "For a first try, your plan is going better than most of my plans. So, sure."

~ ~ ~

 

Romance movies, it turned out, do not fill you with determination. 

After taking as long as possible in the kitchen, you returned to the living room carrying a pint of chocolate ice cream. Your fingers left imprints on the frosty container. Splashes of color from the TV lit the otherwise dark living room, painting the white goat monster like a canvas. 

Seated on the couch, Asriel raised his eyebrows at you, ears swaying from turning to look. "Ice cream?" He sat with a school notebook open on his lap, bare feet poking out into the air since the couch was built for grown-ups. "After those cookies?"

"She only made a dozen." You set it on the sofa next to him, then hopped on the next cushion. Just about to hand him a spoon, you yanked it back super dramatically. "Are you complaining?"

"I'm not." His soft white paw reached for the spoon in vain. Then he smirked around stubby fangs. "I just thought you'd turn it into fat."

"Pretty sure you have to eat chocolate ice cream while you watch these. It's the law or something." You pried the lid off and took a scoop. "If we were grown-ups, we'd be drinking wine too."

The goat kid nodded at your lesson about life in the surface world. Then a dramatic exclamation drew his attention back to the TV. Pencil in paw, he scribbled some notes about the movie. He'd cried at the ending of the last one. You'd thought the show was corny, but didn't want to mess up his fun. 

As you researched different ways to lay on the sofa, you got pretty bored. These movies had started to get old. Your phone buzzed. When you looked down, you saw it had a little picture of your assistant, in front of the United Nations building with all the world's flags behind her. Once you'd explained how they needed a flag, the monsters had been really interested in making them, but everybody's was terrible. One just had a bunch of spears (too scary), another was made out of dried ketchup (too sticky), and another one was just one of those anime body pillows (too kawaii). In the end, you'd just gone with the Delta Rune. Everybody agreed that was fair, except a certain someone who'd invested a lot of time weaving a flag out of half-dry spaghetti. 

Treating yourself to another spoonful of ice cream, you opened the message.

[i]Gloria: {Just to confirm: the skeletons were never humans, right?}[/i]

[i]Frisk: {No. They just look like that. I checked.}[/i]

You thought back to all the bones Papyrus had thrown at you. That had to be way more big bones than a human had. They just kept appearing. Last week, you'd seen him use one to prop a window open. 

[i]Gloria: {Good. Other ambassadors asking about zombie apocalypse.}[/i]

You smiled a little. She always treated you like a grown-up, not worrying that you'd freak out. It felt pretty cool.

[i]Frisk: {BTW, how do you make two people fall in love?}[/i]

[i]Gloria: {You don't.}[/i]

[i]Frisk: {Okay. How would you get my parents back together?}[/i]

The screen showed three wiggling dots for a minute, then popped up another text bubble.

[i]Gloria: {Boss, I just spent the morning negotiating the flight rules for sentient aircraft...and fixing a broken marriage is still above my pay grade. Sometimes, you've just got to trust people to sort their lives out on their own.}[/i]

You stuffed the phone back in your pocket. Grown-ups gave up way too easily sometimes. You looked over at Asriel. His eyes were locked on the dumb movie and had chocolate on his muzzle. 

Determined to solve this puzzle, you closed your eyes. Maybe you didn't have all the pieces? What would you need in your inventory to solve it? Then you sat up. "Love potions." You shook his arm. "Hey Azzie, who makes them and where can we get them?"

His eyes flicked to you for a second, saw you were serious, and then flicked right back to the movie. "Gonna say witches and in cauldrons." He stuck another spoonful of ice cream into his muzzle, legs kicking as he savored it. "But there's no such thing as witches."

"You're a wizard." Your hand reached out toward him. "A super-powerful magic-user who can do pretty much anything!"

"I'm only an okay wizard." He swayed shyly and brushed his ears out of his face, which looked a little pink through the white fur. "What's your point?"

Taking his notebook, you drew a quick sketch of a Goat Bro in a witch hat surfing on a broomstick. Then you handed it back to him.

He snorted. "It's not the same. When do you see me brewing up stuff in cauldrons?"

"Mom has some pretty big soup pots." You leaned a little toward the kitchen. 

"Uh-uh. We're not making them drink weird stuff we mix together." He shook his head. "And, even if it worked, it wouldn't be romantic."

A shrug jostled your shoulders. "Sometimes, you gotta be practical."

"I don't think it counts as love if it's because of drugs." He waved a chocolatey spoon at you.

You nodded. "That's probably fair."

Looking back at the TV, your best friend tapped a pencil to his chin, getting chocolate on the eraser. "She keeps licking her lips. She looks like she wants to eat him. Do you think she's a vampire?" 

"She can't be." Faced with the possibility that a magical goat might eat the whole pint of ice cream, you shoveled some into your mouth. "It's not a horror movie." 

"What?" His fists propped on his hips, spoon in hand. A cocky little smile slanted on his muzzle. "Monsters can't be in romance movies?"

"Now you can." You waved your spoon at the floor. "You were living under the surface of the Earth before."

He nodded slowly, thinking about it. "I guess that's fair." 

You reached onto the coffee table and grabbed a napkin, wiping his face fur clean. 

The small monster sunk a little in his seat, but let you scrub his muzzle back to white. "T-thanks."

"Sure." Sticking the napkin in your pocket, you moved the ice cream onto your lap and scooted up next to him. Not being any taller than him, your legs stuck straight off the edge of the sofa too. Oh well. It felt nice to do the same thing together. Feeling like you belonged with the Dreemurrs was so easy you forgot about it sometimes. Easier than anywhere you'd ever been. You wanted to make it easy for them too, which is why you did stuff like not leave used napkins around. Or leave small goats covered in ice cream. 

In the movie, the lady walked in on the guy at just the right second to make him look like a jerk. These movies had lots of misunderstandings, but nobody seemed interested in talking to fix them. You get enough of people not just saying what they mean in real life. You're not sure why you'd need a movie about that when you could watch a movie about ninja dinosaurs or something.

You sighed. This movie-watching plan wasn't working, but you didn't want to hurt your best friend's feelings. Just watching him watch the things, you could see every little look of concern or delight flicker across his muzzle as boring grown-up things happened on screen. You cleared your throat. "Take any good notes?"

The goat pursed his lips, scratching his head with the pencil as he read the notebook. He got really serious, like a scientist studying evidence. "Hmmm. The dates in these movies usually turn out pretty bad. Somebody's ex or wacky mother always shows up. Or someone offends a waiter and gets super spicy food they have to pretend is okay." He glanced to you. "Does that stuff really happen, do you think?"

You shrugged. "The dates I've been on ended up with a house burning down and my date dating someone else." Watching a fight over nothing play out on screen, your mouth flattened into a line of annoyance. "Hey, maybe if we get them to date someone else, they'll end up dating each other."

Asriel narrowed skeptical eyes at you. "Even I've watched enough TV to know that's a bad idea."

You flopped against the back of the sofa, then shut your eyes and melted onto the floor. "I feel like we have different problems than the people in these movies."

"You mean like going to school?" Asriel watched as you rounded the couch. "Or almost ending the world?"

You slipped behind the sofa and began adjusting his floppy ears like TV antennae, hoping to tune in on a better film. "No, like, the people in these movies have dumb things keeping them apart. Mom and Dad don't." Toriel was grading papers on the patio, looking out over the slightly-dead lawn, so it was safe to talk about her.

The small white goat rolled his eyes, but made no move to stop you from playing with his ears. He'd gotten used to it over the last few months. His eyes darted around, though, as he tried to act like you weren't being weird. "Except that Mom is really mad at Dad for killing those kids. And for letting me get killed. And for letting Chara die."

You didn't know how you were supposed to not play with his ears. They were super duper soft, warm, and just a little bit heavy in your hands. Sensitive, though, so you juggled them really gently. "Yeah, but we fixed all that."

"He still did it, though." The small monster shrugged. "Mom's not as mad because the kids aren't dead anymore. But she's still pretty mad he was okay with killing them."

Hopping back onto the couch, you nodded, then patted him on the knee as you ate another spoonful of chocolatey goodness. "You're really good at thinking about people."

His white, warm paw closed around your fingers. He lifted your hand a little, his gaze flicking as softly to yours as a leaf in the breeze. "You too."

You snorted. "That's nothing special: a whole bunch of monsters wanted to kill me."

"No, I mean you're good at thinking about people too." He squeezed your hand. "You always try to be good to them."

"Sure, but figuring them out is a pain in the butt." You tried not to watch the movie, but the guy had somehow ended up in an actual suit of armor. "It took me forever to figure out Undyne always throws spears at you, even when she likes you. Maybe especially if she likes you."

He waved a paw at you, sleeve sliding over it and whapping you in the chest with a fabric whisper. "But you tried to figure them out."

"Well, yeah. Everybody wants the same good stuff, like people being nice to them. They just want it in different ways, I guess." The ice cream was gone, so you set the container on the coffee table. The night had started to get a little cold, especially since goat monsters liked their air conditioning. You curled up against the fluffy goat monster. "With enough SAVES, everybody could be friends with everybody."

His short muzzle bobbed in a nod. "Too bad we can't SAVE now." 

With a gigantic yawn, you stretched across the whole length of the sofa. "Yeah, too bad." You rubbed your head against Asriel's coat through his thin shirt. "But I got to SAVE you." 

He scoffed softly. "Hope it was worth it."

Your hand closed on his, fur only faintly sticky with ice cream. "Duh."

Asriel lifted his arm for a second, studying you as you lay against his lap, then curled it over you. The movie got really boring again, with grown-ups running around being dumb instead of talking to each other. You distracted yourself by playing with his ears some more. If you tickled the undersides of his ears, his toes curled tight. It was pretty cute, especially when it made him sputter. Once, you almost got a bleat out of him.

The movie went on forever. Credits rolling onscreen, he set his notebook aside. "I still dunno what we're supposed to do about Mom and Dad."

Your eyelids felt heavy. "I'm too sleepy to think about it." 

Really gently, he touched your hair. His delicate paw pads traced along your dark, straight locks. "Wanna go to bed?"

"Too late." You nuzzled into his side. He felt warm and safe as a summer cloud. And he smelled like golden flowers. "Already got my teddy bear anyway."

He leaned back against the arm of the couch, legs laying along your body. "If I'm not a goat, I'm sure not a bear."

Out the window, evening light faded from gold to red. Inside, the air conditioner droned a soothing one-note melody. "Mmmm. Right." Sleep began to drift in around you. "Just a hundred percent fluff."

~ ~ ~

 

You drifted out of vague and comfortable dreams and into a now-moonlit living room. Hugging Asriel like a fluffy goat pillow, you found the two of you had been covered in a soft quilt. Toriel must have walked by at some point, since the TV was off and Asriel hadn't woken you up by moving to reach it. Your nose felt a little cold; the air conditioner was still chugging along at full blast. She could have turned it down, but you've learned that goat monsters don't turn down the AC. 

Untangling yourself from the blanket and cuddles, you got a good look at Asriel. Head back, mouth open, he snored. Starlight shone off his little fangs. His ears dangled against the back of the sofa, the pink of their insides visible in the faint light. 

"Hey, c'mon." You took his warm hand in yours and tugged gently. "We gotta go to bed."

The prince of all monsterkind snorted, then went back to sleep. 

You tugged again, but just made him flop in slow motion to one side against the armrest. He was super vulnerable to a tickle attack, you knew, but that would be mean since he couldn't tickle back. With a shake of your head, you grabbed him by one arm and dragged it over your shoulders. 

He made a noise like a door creaking open, followed by the quietest bleat against your neck. The quilt dangled from his shoulders like a king's cape made with sparkly periwinkle fabric. The back of it poked out a little bit where it draped over his fluffy bunny tail. 

As you hauled him along, he sort of helped walk. You headed toward your bedroom, then diverted to the bathroom. Little snail-shell nightlights glowed in a line down the hallway, one at each electrical outlet. Toriel had made a zillion of them during a craft class at school. 

Once in the bathroom, which had its own snail nightlight, you squeezed some toothpaste onto toothbrushes and stuck one in Asriel's hand. He mumbled and brushed his teeth on autopilot. You weren't sure if monsters could get cavities, but Toriel always made sure you both brushed your teeth. Maybe she just didn't want your breath to be gross. Either way, it made her happy. So you brushed your teeth in the almost-dark of the bathroom, faint ripples of snail-shell texture cast in light on the walls.

After you'd both rinsed and spit, you dragged the faintly-minty Goat Bro to your bedroom. The snail-lights in the hallway glowed amber and pink, each one a little different, working together to guide you if you needed it. Your changed into your PJs, which had frolicking cartoon goats on them. Then you dropped your clothes in the hamper, since keeping your room clean made Toriel smile and talk about what good children she had. It felt nice. Asriel, still wearing a blanket-cape, tipped over into bed. Before rescuing him from the SAVE, you'd never slept in the same bed as somebody. Since, you'd never slept alone. You'd both died enough times that sometimes you had bad dreams, so it was nice to have somebody right there who understood. It helped too. You didn't had a lot of nightmares anymore, but you weren't going to complain about being cuddled by a soft, fuzzy monster who loved you. He was basically the best teddy bear. Except that time the AC broke. Then he was the worst. 

The bedsprings squeaked in the quiet house as you climbed on. You curled up next to him. Ideas for getting Asgore and Toriel back together floated through your head. You could fix them. You always fixed things. Staring into the dark, you ran through plans in your mind. You couldn't just try everything and revert to a SAVE anymore, so thinking would have to do. You just had to figure out the right things to do and they'd be put back together again. A promise was a promise, after all. And you'd promised to take care of the Dreemurrs. 

Asriel, with far less on his mind, wiggled up close to you and rested his head on your chest. A happy sigh settled his body against yours as he nuzzled in at your shoulder, like he did every night. Sometimes, the fur on his ears tickled you or his horns poked you. But his fur was soft and his horns weren't sharp. Curling your arms around him, you decided life was pretty cool.

~ ~ ~

 

The sun shone. Birds chirped. Humans and the occasional monster sat around or played frisbee in the downtown park. You led a panting Goat Bro to school on a day off. Carrying a paper bag, you tried not to whack the pastries inside against your knee as you walked.

"Ughhhhhh..." Asriel fanned the collar of his Nyan Cat t-shirt. He glared up at the burning orb in the sky. "Why's the sun so hot?"

You touched your face. No sweat detected. "It's not that hot."

"You're not covered in fur!" He danced in place for a couple steps, fists curled up by his chest. "If it's like this all summer, I can see why humans are bald."

"We could always shave your fur off." You shrugged. "Dad has that electric trimmer for his beard."

"No way!" His ears popped up half an inch in panic, then wobbled as he backed away from you. "I don't wanna be bald."

"I'm joking." You really had been kidding. The Goat Parents wouldn't like it if you shaved their kid. You patted him on the shoulder. Then you caught a whiff of something sweet and smirked.

"What?" His eyes locked on you. 

The smirk got stronger, threatening to break into a laugh, but you resisted with all your might. "Nothing."

"Ugh. Just tell me." Stuffing his hands in the pockets of his purple shorts, he stomped along on the grass, ears extra droopy. "Maybe it'll distract me from how I'm melting."

"It's just kinda weird that you always smell like flowers now." By accident, you bumped the paper bag on a shrub. It poked a couple little holes it in, but the apple turnovers inside were probably fine.

"Always?" He sniffed his arm. His white-velvet nose wiggled, like a bunny's. 

You nodded, resisting the urge to touch his snoot. "Pretty much."

His eyes widened with mild concern, just like that time he found a leaf in his hair and you had to point out it was from a bush you'd climbed through. He rubbed his claws together. "Do you think that means anything bad?"

"No, everybody likes flowers." You'd only met one obnoxious flower in your whole life. Probably be mean to bring that up, though. You shrugged. "Could be worse. You could smell like stinky socks or something."

"Gross!" He bleated a little laugh, then pointed at his feet. "I don't even wear socks."

"Yeah, but maybe we should get you flip-flops." Did flip-flops fit goat monsters? Some kind of sandal had to. This same thing happened whenever they tried to shop for hats. "Sidewalks get kinda hot in the summer."

"The ground burns too?" He looked with horror at the sidewalks waiting in ambush. Here in the middle of town, they had him surrounded. "Why's the surface world trying to kill me?"

Across the street, Monster Kid scooted by on a unicycle. You waved, but weren't noticed. Not that a monster without arms could wave back, but you didn't cause a catastrophic unicycle crash. You did spot a yellow fanny pack on those snaky hips, which was new, and you weren't sure how they used it. You'd have to ask sometime at school. "What's that kid's name, anyway?"

"I don't know, actually." Having also waved in vain, Asriel lowered his paw. "I thought you knew everybody."

"I thought you knew. You're his prince." You bumped him with your elbow. "Unless his name is actually Monster Kid. Maybe Dad named him."

His little white paw covered a giggling goat muzzle. "Well, at least Monster Kid started wearing a helmet like Mom asked." He shrugged, then turned to look at you. "We should tell her. It makes her happy when people listen to her."

You nodded. "You should listen to me about learning to ride a bike." You snapped your fingers and pointed at him, to make it sound extra cool. "Bikes are way faster than walking."

He fiddled with the tip of his ear, half his muzzle squinched up in worry. "What if I crash? Won't I get super hurt, going fast?"

"Everybody starts with training wheels." You put your arms out to the side to show how they wouldn't let you tip over. "And we could put streamers on the handlebars."

He tilted his head at you. His little poof of white hair blew in the breeze."What do streamers do?"

"Sparkle, mostly." Being ambassador to monsters meant you spent a lot of time explaining things humans never had to explain. "They're like a bunch of plastic ribbons you can get in any color."

He watched a frisbee float by. "Just one color?"

You rolled your eyes. "We can probably find rainbow ones."

Eyebrows in serious-thinking position, he nodded. "Okay, maybe."

The two of you made it through the park without getting bonked by a frisbee or anything—even with a whole pack of dogs playing. The school came into view, making you feel like you should be wearing a backpack or other scholastic things. Maybe one of those graduation hats. You adjusted your baseball cap, which fit just fine because you didn't have horns. As usual, you found Asgore in the school gardens.

He was planting plants.

He was also talking to plants—mostly about dirt. And he was carefully watering them with a snail-shaped watering can. He'd bought two of them so he could have you give a matching one to Toriel for her birthday. She never asked where it was from, though she was curious how you'd caused her old one to mostly stop existing. His gigantic body was crouched down, tail sticking out from the back of his Bermuda shorts.

As you walked up, the king stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees. "Howdy, sprouts." He hugged both of you at the same time with his gigantic arms. "What brings you by?"

"Asriel wanted to go for walk in the sunshine." You kept your face blank.

"No!" His muzzle dropped open a little as he looked at you in tired disbelief. "We just wanted to see you."

With a fond smile, the large goat nodded. "Would you like a cup of iced tea?"

Asriel brightened, his tail springing back from wilting. "Mmhm!"

Shaking your head, you smiled. You should really explain to him that iced tea comes in glasses, but it made him sound so fancy saying it that way. 

Nobody was around to see, but you still played it cool when your hand closed on a couple of his big, furry fingers. His claws had dirt on them, but you didn't mind. You tried not to blush, since you still felt all jumbled inside by being able to just grab somebody's hand whenever. It felt good, just new. Asgore, like always, didn't make a big deal about it, though he smiled a little bit down at you. Asriel grabbed his other hand, grinning like a goofball. 

The three of you crossed the garden, where he was raising a whole army of onions. He led you past the flower beds and fruit trees, so colorful they looked like someone had chucked a bunch of paint sets on them. You rounded the school building. The greenhouse shone in the summer sunshine. It had a small cottage stuck one side, which is where Asgore lived. Vines creeped all over it. Sometimes, your ambassador assistant asked if it was normal for the King of Monsters to live in a garden shed. You always just shrugged. Other ambassadors never complained that they were expected to meet in a greenhouse—who didn't like nice plants? Still, they probably had noticed: ambassadors were experts at noticing things and trying not to look weirded out. Going by that, you were a pretty good one.

With a paw bigger than the door knob was designed for, he let you into the cottage. A small air conditioner purred in one window. His crown and armor hung on a coat rack. His trident gleamed in a corner, little bits of dried dirt on the pokey bits; you'd seen him till soil with it a couple times. Still looked really sharp. You didn't touch it. 

A big glass jar with tea infuser dangling in it sat on the microscopic kitchen table. Sunlight blasted in from the window, shining through it. Tiny curls of tea twirled in slow-motion through the water. Asgore, being super strong, picked it up with one hand. 

You wandered over to his bookshelf. Half of it was gardening books. The other half was cookbooks with lots of notes stuck in them. 

He opened his freezer. Stacks of microwave dinners waited inside. He grabbed an ice cube tray and shut the door. "How is your magic training going?"

"Pretty good." Asriel hopped into an Asgore-size flower-print armchair, which made him look even smaller than usual. The back of the headrest had holes poked in it, like someone with big horns had been falling asleep in it. "Mom has me doing warm-ups."

"Ah yes." With a twist of his powerful hands, he popped the cubes loose, then pinched them out with his claws and dropped them into teacups. "Still working with chicken croquettes?"

"Chicken nuggets, Dad." He said the word extra-slowly, like it was super exotic.

"Right. Nuglets." He nodded and put the ice cube tray away. "As in a small nugacity."

You stared at him. "..."

Asriel also stared at him. "..."

"From the Latin nugax?" At the silence, he did the same head tilt his son used when encouraging you to understand some Underground thing you'd never heard of. "It means a frivolity." 

Meeting Asriel's eyes, he only shrugged at you.

"Sure, Dad." You sometimes worried it wasn't healthy to be around a school all day. 

The smaller goat straightened his head-fluff. "The garden looks nice."

"Thank you, my child." He picked up the huge sun-tea jar and poured delicately until all three were full. He didn't spill a drop. "All this sunlight makes the plants grow quite fast. But, golly, that wind..."

You set the bag of apple turnovers on the kitchen counter. Toriel had recently discovered turnover technology, which she'd been using to make smaller and more mobile pies. This bag of them had been set aside but not talked about, which meant they were supposed to go here.

"And you, Frisk." With a fond look, he handed you a cup of tea. "No messing around with time lately?"

"Nope." You took a sip. The tea tasted sweet and complicated. "I think that was my only chance anyway. I dunno how he knew about it, but Sans told me 'good job' and 'never do it again.'" 

He nodded, his beard shining like butterscotch as he padded into the little living room. "Well, please tell me or your mom before you try anything like that again. Magic like that can cause quite a mess."

You nodded. "Like the time Asriel got tie-dyed at school."

"You're just jealous because you're not good at soaking up dye." As his dad passed, the prince stuck his little pink tongue out at you.

Chuckling, Asgore carefully handed one of the iced teas to his son.

The smaller monster took the cup in both paws and tipped it up to his muzzle. 

A comfortable silence filled the cabin. Wind danced through the flowerbeds outside. Cracks popped across the ice cubes in your teacups.

"So..." You leaned against the sofa. "Do you ever wish you were back together with Mom?"

Asriel choked on his tea.

The big goat's tail twitched, his eyes wide and on you. After a moment, he sighed and looked out the window. He took a slow sip of tea. "All the time."

Ignoring how the smaller boss monster was glaring at you, you casually kept going. "Why don't you ask her?"

"Some plants take time to grow, even under the right conditions." On the window sill, he nudged a tiny cactus out of the shade of another plant, into a soft sunbeam. "It's harder if the soil is wrong or if they get over-watered." He sighed and stood, staring at the potted plant. 

"...Okay, Dad." You shrugged at Asriel. 

The younger monster rolled his eyes at you and took another drink.

"Quite a number of the plants I've tried to grow up here were battered by the wind." He looked really far into the distance, past the swing sets. "Even after I learned to tie them to sticks or shield them with buckets, it took a great deal of time and care for those plants to recover." 

This talk was going nowhere. You looked to Asriel and flipped a hand back and forth between yourself and Asgore's back, psychically urging him to help. Your dad was always going on about plants when you were trying to talk about serious stuff.

The small monster ignored you and watched his dad instead. 

The older monster reflected on the window. "Some plants don't grow well in gardens at all. Sometimes, you have to be content with seeing them in the wild." He straightened his Hawaiian shirt. "In my long life, I've learned you just have to try your best and hope things take root. Getting something to blossom is a matter of patience, hard work, and not being too proud to admit when you make mistakes."

The goats got all starry-eyed and quiet. You didn't want to rain on their garden parade, so you hushed up. Plants were cool, you guessed, so it would be mean to butt into the moment they were having, even if you weren't getting answers about how to fix up the Goat Parents. The desire to ship Torigore filled you with determination. Good thing the Dreemurrs had you around, because they could be kind of oblivious. 

After a long silence staring at his own reflection, Asgore cleared his throat. "More tea?"

You three finished your iced tea. The huge goat monster packed up two grocery bags of leaf lettuce and yellow squashes, including both the UFO and bowling pin shaped squashes. He handed them off for you to carry home. He sent fruits and veggies home with you a lot. Toriel never asked where they came from. She just made them into pies. Well, pies and, now, turnovers. With that, he hugged you goodbye. "Make sure you're home before dark." He stayed kneeling on one knee, at eye level with you two. "Don't make your mother worry." His voice seemed sad, but his eyes crinkled like he was happy. Adults were weird.

Asriel nodded. Then he went in for an extra hug.

You wanted to stay and try to talk about Toriel again, but the small goat took you by the arm and towed you back through the gardens.

Once you were off school grounds, you grumbled. "Well, that didn't work. All he did was talk about plants a bunch."

Giving you a tired look, Asriel slung the big bag of fruits and veggies over his shoulder. 

"So we gotta go back to my plan where you're on my shoulders and we pose as Mom." You figured you could wear some bunny slippers and fool Asgore from far away. That just left Asriel. Maybe you could make horn extensions out of printer paper. "What's your best disapproving Mom expression?"

The small monster looked at you.

"Wow, that's the one." You patted him on the back. "You didn't even have to practice."

~ ~ ~

 

You walked up the front steps your house, followed by a small goat monster. In the driveway, Toriel checked her mirrors and backed into the street, heading off to a parent-teacher conference. The benefit of having both your parents work at the school was getting to skip those. She gave the two of you one last glare of warning before she motored away. 

You poked a wilted potted plant with your toe. The plan had not gone as planned. At all. It'd probably needed more business meetings.

Asriel squirmed. "Wow, Mom got really mad back there." 

"She was mad at us, though..." You'd seen Toriel way angrier than that, but knowing you upset her still left you feeling twisted up tight inside. There had to be a way to make it better. You eyes flicked to your best friend, hoping he'd give you a clue. "...so that's...something."

Without a word, Asriel turned around and trudge inside. He took off his mom's bathrobe, which had been dragging like a gown since he got off your shoulders. You grabbed it and hung it up. Then you kicked off her bunny slippers under her bed, where you found them. The plan had not gone very well, but you remained determined.

The small goat monster sighed. "Well, at least that's over." He padded into the living room and turned on some cartoons.

"So..." You opened your notebook on the coffee table. "I took some notes on the drive home."

He gave you really tired look, but by then you had the tie back on and it was too late. "Frisk, no." He stretched out a paw.

The notebook tried to fly out of your hands, but you yanked it back down, stronger than his magic. You cleared your throat. "Note number one: Mom doesn't say 'howdy.'"

"I had to improvise!" Arms spread, he flopped back against the couch. "You said to act casual."

"That was too casual." You flipped the next page over like it was a business slideshow. "Note number two: like Dad said, we should have stuffed some pillows under the robe."

His fluffy head tilted back against the couch padding. "Yeah, but Mom looked at him really weird when he said that." 

"Look, we don't need a ton of pillows under there. I'm thinking two or three." You continued to the next page. "And here you see a crab holding a balloon. I thought it was cute."

Glancing over, he studied the drawing for a second and then nodded in agreement.

You flipped another page. "Note number three: we're going to have to learn to copy Mom's handwriting better."

The goat summoned the remote control to his paw and turned up the wacky sounds of the cartoon. That probably meant the meeting was over.

Dropping the notebook on the table, you sighed and sat down on the floor. "It stinks that we can't just go back to a SAVE."

"Yeah, but Mom and Dad love us." He didn't even look away from the TV, but his expression got less grumpy.

You looked at him. "Yeah, they do. That's good. But a SAVE is what would help us here." 

He wiggled on the sofa, getting comfy. "Right, but them loving us sorta works like a SAVE."

You watched him, waiting for an explanation. "..."

With a look like you were telling a bad joke, he lifted the remote and turned off the TV without even looking at it. "You know, 'cause it'll reset?"

"..." You kept looking at him. Sometimes, this worked.

"Ugh, Frisk..." He dragged a palm down his face. "They love us!" He threw his arms to the side, too-long sleeves fluttering past his blunt claw tips. "They won't be mad forever. In a while, it'll almost be like it never happened. So it's kinda like a SAVE."

"Hmm. Interesting." You stroked your chin. "Okay, since love is like a SAVE, we can keep trying until we fix them."

Asriel tipped his head back with a groan. "Come with me." His fluffy paw closed around your hand and dragged you over to the hallway. He crouched down, tugging your arm so you crouched too.

You squatted next to each other like in some kind of boy band poster. "What are we doing?"

"We are looking at the snail lights."

"'Kay." Eyes narrow, you glanced at him. "How come?"

He opened his paw toward them. "They're off."

"Well, yeah." You looked from the lights to the goat. "It's daytime."

"Right. 'Cause we don't need them right now. It would waste energy." 

You nodded, not sure where this electricity talk was going. 

"And when it's dark..." He poked a finger over the sensor just under the snail shell. The bulb inside flicked on, glowing pink.

"They come on."

"Because we need them at night."

"Right."

His hopeful smile melted into weary sarcasm. "Frisk, not to be mean, but how'd you even save the Underground?"

You shrugged. "I had a lot of chances."

He nodded, half-smiling. "That makes sense."

A moment passed. You still didn't get it. "I guess I'm a double-doofus with cheese." You smiled at little at him. "Wanna just spill the secret sauce?"

The little goat let out a gigantic sigh. "You don't need to fix everything and everybody all the time." He pointed at the window, at the sunshine on the squirrel chowing down at the bird feeder. "When things are nice, you can just sorta be around and ready."

A little bit of sadness tightened in your throat. "I promised you I'd take care of them."

"And you do. When things are bad. That's the nighttime part." He stuck his finger over the sensor, turning the nightlight. He did this a few times. Then a bunch of times. Looking at you the whole time.

You stopped his paw. "I get it."

"So you'll chill out?" He tilted his head at you, floppy ears swinging a little. "I'm asking 'cause humans are super full of determination. And you're twice as full of it as a regular human."

A snicker burst out through the serious moment. "Heh. Full of it..."

"Promise?" The goat monster raised his pinky finger at you. He really was picking up on surface world stuff.

You hooked his pinky with yours. "Promise."

A big smile broke out across his small muzzle. He stood and helped you up by the pinky.

Letting go, you patted him on the back. "You're pretty good at this, Asriel."

"Thanks. I'm trying not to turn into a soulless murder-flower again." He said it really seriously.

You nodded, also very serious.

Those leaf-green eyes meeting yours, he struggled to be even more serious than you. His fluffy tail, however, bounced.

That tiny motion made you snort. Then he did too. Then you were both laughing. As the tension from a long day broke, you both cracked up until he had to wipe tears from his eyes. 

Once you'd pretty much gotten control of yourself, you hugged the fluffy goat monster. "Thanks."

"Sure." He hugged back. That poof of head fluff brushed against your cheek. You keep meaning to show him The Lion King, since Simba has the same hairstyle, but you worried he'd cry at the Mufasa part.

With a deep breath, you thought about the next important thing to do in your life. "C'mon. I've got a cool video game to show you." You took him by the arm and headed back to the living room. "You play as psychic kids who use baseball bats to fight haunted appliances."

"Nice." As he sat down and grabbed a round grey game controller, his smile shone up at you. His little white tail had fluffed up with happiness. "But don't tell Mom. She's already pretty suspicious of the microwave."

You sat down beside him and swapped the Player 1 controller into his paws. Toriel and Asgore had been broken up for a century. Maybe expecting them to get back together right away was too much. Your plan did bring them together to tell you not to try to bring them together, though. And they'd had a talk while you two were in the car. They'd exchanged phone numbers; that had taken thousands of years the first time. Asgore even made her laugh, just for a moment, when he showed her the note you'd left. Maybe all that was good enough. Maybe you didn't have to spend every second fixing the world. Maybe you just had to trust the people in your world. Maybe this video game had better graphics when you weren't crying. 

As Asriel navigated the game's opening menu, you hugged his shoulders. Without a pause, he leaned into the hug. A newly familiar feeling glowed in your chest. You had three goat monsters who loved you, who wanted you to be happy. And you loved them. Having it finally sink in that you could just be happy with them, the happiest you'd ever been, filled you with determination. 

~ ~ ~

I figured we all needed a little more Goat Bro in our lives. ^_^ Plus, I was curious what these two would get up to after the events of SAVE.

Artist: Sam Pipes  
Editors: Sillyneko345, KohakuNightfang, Eljot001, Ivic_Wulfe

You can see my work early by subscribing to my Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/tempo

\- Tempo


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